Shared Hearts
by Adyen
Summary: Death can hit a person very hard, but worse yet can the uphill battle to live. The Tendo mother had died a year before canon and left her will to her eldest daughter, but can she handle it? And how will it change Ranma's story? Dead.


Shared Hearts  
  
Ranma 1/2 fanfic based on the premises of Kasami not maturing/becoming the person we all know in the manga and anime as quickly as she would/should/had, and their mother dying a year younger.  
  
Prologue ===============================================================  
  
"Mother..."  
  
A young Kasumi Tendo held the hand of her dying mother. Inside their cupped hands, a small necklace hung from the daughter's fingers, allowing both to feel the warm metal cross. "Please stay with us..."  
  
Behind her, Soun Tendo silently watched as his eldest daughter shared her mother's final moments. The doctors said that there was nothing they could do and she was going to die in the next few hours. He had left Akane and Nabiki with a friend, but Kasumi had begged so hard to be with her mother that Soun just couldn't say no.  
  
"Everyone has their time." The mother wheezed to her oldest daughter. "I'm merely going to a better place."  
  
"I don't want you to leave!" Kasumi wailed, shaking her head. "What about Akane? And Nabiki! Who's going to keep her from grabbing all the candy from her younger sister?"  
  
Her mother closed her eyes, seeming to feel that the end of her life was closer than the doctors thought. "You will have to do it for me." She said with a burst of strength, powerfully cupping her daughter's hand. "For me. I will be watching..."  
  
Slowly, antagonizing, her hands fell limp as a solid tone rang through the air, summoning the doctors to the woman's side, and pushing Kasumi out of the way, holding on to the silver chain her mother gave her. Soun gently wrapped his arms around his weeping daughter, his own tears falling onto her as they both mourned for the passing of a wonderful woman.  
  
===============================================================  
  
*A year later*  
  
A slightly older Kasumi was looking at her mother's cookbook as she mixed the vegetables required for her to cook the meal. She was only slightly taller than the counter, so she often used a small stool to boost her height.  
  
"Can we eat yet?" A young voice whined from outside the kitchen.  
  
"Soon." Kasumi yelled back. "Just watch TV for a bit more, little sister."  
  
"But I'm HUNGRY!" Nabiki whined, running into the kitchen. The girl was only two years younger than Kasumi, but felt that it was her right to have anything she wanted NOW and without fail.  
  
"Just wait a while." Kasumi answered, rolling her eyes. She held a tight grip on the bowl of mixed vegetables in her hands, something that she had painstakingly washed and cut a few hours before. "It's not even dinner time yet."  
  
"I WANT SOMETHING TO EAT!" Nabiki yelled, yanking on Kasumi's leg in a fit of childish rage. Kasumi, holding the bowl, had no way of stabilizing herself as she toppled backwards and fell to the floor, her vegetables falling around the floor and on top of Nabiki, who was to her left.  
  
She closed her eyes, floating in that eternity which it took her to fall, thinking how much work it was for her to get all those vegetables to be perfect, just like how the cookbook told her it should be. All her hard work, spoiled in this one moment. She felt so sad that she allowed herself to fall, hoping that maybe the fall would break some bone of hers in some sort of divine punishment for failing her mother.  
  
Then, the small amount of training with Soun stepped in at this point, and she managed to absorb the impact from falling suddenly, but that did not mean she was not hurt. She felt a stinging pain on her palm, as well as the left knee where Nabiki had pulled on. Opening her eyes, the sight that greeted her suddenly angered her beyond reason.  
  
Nabiki was eating the pieces of vegetables that had landed on her, completely ignoring her elder sister as if it what happened to Kasumi didn't matter to her at all. Worse was the fact that the little stool that she had been standing on had broken off a leg, and couldn't be used anymore. It was like little sparks of electricity that ran through her mind, making her angrier and angrier. Not just at what happened, but at Nabiki and herself for letting it happen.  
  
She raised her free hand to the necklace that her mother had gave her unconsciously. Besides that gesture, nothing signified her burning rage as she slowly got up, avoided the fallen food, and went to a cupboard where her mother had once placed what was called, 'The Punishment Stick'.  
  
The next thirty minutes were filled with the loud agonizing cries of a girl screaming in pain, even after her father had arrived at the scene within fifteen minutes, and a little girl who glanced in from outside the kitchen: hidden from view, but wide eyed and more frighten than she's ever been before. 


End file.
